Rui Tavares, spokesman for LIVRE (a party with only one MP, himself) has today accused the speaker of parliament of “pretending that the problems don’t exist” after former CHEGA MP Miguel Arruda was twice ‘caught’ apparently signalling his vote with a Nazi salute. Arruda has stressed this was not his intention, and the speaker, José Pedro Aguiar Branco, has said it really isn’t MPs’ job to police each other like this – but Tavares is not taking any of it. He said today: “It seems to me that there is sometimes a tendency here on the part of certain politicians and the speaker of parliament to pretend that problems don’t exist when they do.” As for the ‘policing’ argument, he called it “absurd”. MPs who point out unacceptable behaviour are just “being good citizens”, he said.
Speaker accused of turning blind eye to Nazi salute
The reality in this year of municipal elections is that every party (particularly the ones with a light presence in parliament) will be seizing on issues to show voters how they think, and why they see themselves as relevant. Rui Tavares of LIVRE in parliament. Image: António Pedro Santos/ Lusa
